CED | Consolidated Electrical Distributors

Be A Part of Something Big

We’re one of the nation’s largest electrical supply distribution networks, with nearly 600 locations in 47 states. We distribute just about every piece of equipment that keeps your lights on, your energy flowing and your lifestyle comfortable. Our products — and opportunity — are all around you.

About

Our Current

Our business in motion

Residential Construction
Fifty-seven percent of all U.S. homes were built before 1980, and total U.S. Housing Starts have averaged almost 1.5 million units annually since 1959. We supply just about every piece of residential electrical equipment to power American lifestyles.

Commercial Construction and Maintenance
U.S. metropolitan areas house 4.6 billion square feet of existing office space and more than 7.8 billion square feet of existing retail space. Add more than 52,000 hotels and you’ll see why commercial construction and maintenance represents a lot of opportunity for CED.

Industrial Manufacturing
The U.S. knows how to produce — there are already some 12.9 billion square feet of existing industrial/warehouse spaces in the country. When America builds — including in the industrial/manufacturing sector — we help make it happen.

Charging America
Electrical distribution is a $75 billion industry in the U.S and growing. Our products touch and enrich every person, home, business and development in America.

Innovating
Just in research and development alone in 2009, $9.1 billion was invested in companies that produce machinery, $60 billion in companies that produce computers/electrical products and $3.3 billion in other electrical components companies. The industry is growing, and because it constantly changes, we make innovation routine.

Green Energy
In 2010, renewable energy accounted for 11.5 percent of U.S. electricity generation ($127 billion market), and is projected to grow to 15.2 percent ($263 billion) by 2015. In 2004, $300 billion was invested domestically in energy-efficient technologies and infrastructure. We distribute the electrical components that soak and harness energy from the sun and wind, and that deliver efficient lighting to homes, buildings and manufacturing facilities.

Control Your Destiny
CED’s decentralized structure puts the power in our local managers’ hands. They know their markets best, so they make their own business decisions: "Your way, your vision."

Grow with Us
We started with two locations in 1957, and have grown to nearly 600 — averaging more than 10 new locations for each of the past 55 years. Our opportunities are literally all around you.

Share the Profits
CED’s unique profit-sharing model allows you to see the results — and rewards — of your hard work. A percentage of the profits your vision facilitates at your location comes back directly to you and your team — unaffected by whatever happens at another location. There’s no ceiling at CED.

CED Locations

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Opportunities

Steer The Current

Opportunities are all around you

Frank Gonzalez
Location Manager

Manager Training Program

We’re still growing. And we need talented young leaders to help shape our future. CED’s competitive management training program teaches top candidates every skill for every job in every facet of our fast-paced, profitable industry.

Get paid to earn a real-world M.B.A. as you choose your 2-2 1/2-year path to managing your own CED location.

Our opportunity is your current — you decide where to steer it.

Control Your Future

We hire a small number of new trainees each year — self-motivated, sales-oriented, geographically flexible men and women who possess an entrepreneurial spirit. And we invest a lot into each of them.

We immerse candidates into the electrical distribution industry through four structured phases that include on-the-job, home and classroom training.

It’s up to them to choose their path, and to steer their opportunity.

Phase 1
Warehouse & Counter Training

Start on the hustling, bustling ground floor as you get to know the CED team and our products. You’ll learn how to safely operate equipment, how to ship and receive, process paperwork, handle back orders and how to organize a warehouse. Seminars and home study begin here, and continue throughout the program.

Warehouse training generally lasts six weeks. However, your skills, experience, capacity and progress determine the duration of each training phase.

Counter Sales
Spend time with the products and our customers as you develop your sales knowledge and skills.Duration: 5 months

Phase 2
Operations Training

Learn what happens behind the scenes to allow CED products to touch every home, business and development property in the country. You’ll learn the ins and outs of our credit office, service center and administration in phase 2.Duration: 10 weeks.

Phase 3
Customer Service Training

Inside Sales
Relationships are critical to this business, so we’ll arm you with techniques to master phone sales and joint calls with outside salespeople. We’ll teach you how to interpret blueprints, understand job project management and to bid and quote jobs.

Purchasing
You’ll learn how purchasing decisions are made and executed, as well as controlling inventory write downs and supplier returns.

Duration: 8 months

Phase 4
Outside Sales Training

You’re nearly dangerous. In the final phase of CED’s training program, you’ll be in the field, incorporating everything you’ve learned to build contacts and make sales. By the time you graduate from the program, you’ll understand how to capitalize on the skills and resources you’ve developed.Duration: 12 months.

Internship Program

Get a head start on your career. CED offers competitive, paid internships for juniors and seniors to experience the electrical industry hands-on, from eight different perspectives. It provides unique insight into CED’s culture and career opportunities for the right individual.

Other Opportunities

Credit/Financial Management

The CED Credit Team serves our profit centers and customers by managing the credit extension and collection processes. The candidate will have a strong desire to work in a sales environment providing solutions to facilitate ongoing and new business opportunities.

Credit Training Program Details: 2-3 years (depending on candidate’s experience level). Work alongside an experienced credit manager to learn all aspects of financial management in the electrical wholesaling industry, administering CED’s credit policy through proficiency in financial review, collection management, protecting the assets of the company, problem solving, negotiations and the utilization of construction lien and bond laws.

FAQs

Our competitive management training program has been turning talented young leaders into the managers of their own CED profit centers since 1989. Below are answers to our recruits’ common questions.

What do you do?

Answer
We’re one of the nation’s largest electrical distributors, buying from manufacturers and supplying electrical equipment to customers in 47 states through nearly 600 local locations.

Why are electrical distributors needed? Why not buy straight from the manufacturers?

Answer:
Our customers need many different electrical materials. We offer one, convenient local stop for our customers, who, rather than having to work through multiple suppliers, can use a single line of credit. We’re extremely knowledgeable about a wide range of products, so we can serve as business partners to our customers.

Are you a utility company?

Answer
No. We supply electrical materials, but do not manufacture or install the products.

What are general work hours?

Answer:
You can expect to work 8-9 hours a day, Monday-Friday, usually 7 a.m.-5 p.m. or 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Some weekend work may be required for special projects, but it is rare.

Is the training paid?

Answer:
Yes. Our training program is essentially a full-time position that includes benefits such as paid sick/vacation/holiday time, 401K and medical, dental and vision insurance.

What kind of perks does it include?

Answer:
You will attend multiple training courses throughout the year (around 7-15 annually) that include traveling to cities across the country. Recruits often build relationships with their fellow trainees that help them through the program, and through their careers.

Where is the training located?

Answer:
The training takes place in locations across the country. It includes on-the-job and at-home work learning about electrical products. You’ll also travel for vendor/manufacturing training in a classroom setting that runs for 3-5-day stretches during the week.

Do you need previous electrical experience?

Answer:
No, you don’t. We’ll give you the tools and resources you need to become an industry expert.

What are the requirements?

Answer:
A bachelor’s degree is required. Sales and leadership experience and/or a business or sales degree is preferred.

Is relocation required?

Answer:
Yes, your ability to relocate will broaden your opportunities. We do our best to accommodate preferences, but it’s not guaranteed.

How long is the program?

Answer:
The program lasts 2-2 ½ years.

Why is it so much longer than other management training programs?

Answer:
CED’s training program is more like an on-the-job MBA. We train you to run one of our locations as if you’re an owner — not just a manager of operations — including profit sharing.

Why does CED refer to its locations as "profit centers?"

Answer:
This is another example of why CED’s business model is so unique. We treat each of our company’s locations as a separate business, responsible for its own independent profits and losses. Empowered to grow and share revenues, and accountable for expenses, our profit center managers essentially run their own businesses.

Why are there different names/DBAs?

Answer:
One of the ways that CED has grown is through acquisitions. Often, we keep the local name that is strong in the market already.

When I get out of the program what am I?

Answer:
You'll be placed as a manager of a CED profit center. You will likely take over an existing business, opposed to a start up.

Who owns the company?

Answer:
Consolidated Electrical Distributors has been a privately held business for 50+ years.

Successes

Live the Current

Empowered

John Anderson

A former management trainee, John applied what he learned in the program to reshape, reenergize and grow two different CED locations. Here's his story.

Wil Durden

Wil gives you the blueprint to control your future. #SteerTheCurrent CED will teach you whatever you need to know to thrive in this industry. Here's his story.

Emma Gage

What does it mean to be a CED Manager?

Emma is the manager in Bozeman, MT.

Emma discusses how she worked her way up to Management from a temporary secretary. Now she makes decisions and #SteerTheCurrent

Zach Bunting

What does it mean to be a CED Manager Trainee?

Zach discusses his experience in the program and how he became a manager of his own location. #SteerTheCurrent

"CED’s Management Training Program taught me how to run a business from the bottom up. It’s like an on-the-job MBA program that gives you experience in every position in the business — including full profit-and-loss responsibilities — then hands you the keys when you graduate."

David Whitaker

District Manager | Former Trainee | Texas

"I love my job because it’s creative. Identifying an opportunity, assembling a group of talented people and structuring a business that allows each individual to contribute to its success is addictive."

“I got into this industry by accident and have remained in it over the years because of the quality of the people."

Brad Selby

Division Manager | Former Trainee | Chicago

"I wanted to work for a strong company that had a small-company feel and that rewarded its employees based on their efforts and success."

Kurt Lasher

President, CEO | Former Trainee | Irving, Texas

"I work with great people and for a privately held company that closely mirrors my own personal value system. All employees are stakeholders, so everyone works toward the same goal. This creates a family like bond that becomes somewhat self-correcting. You control your own destiny, and can have virtually unlimited earning potential."

Scott Ledbetter

Regional Manager | Former Trainee | Tennessee

"I’m always being challenged and expanding my knowledge of our company, our products and our business. One of the things I enjoy most about CED is that they truly want their trainees to understand every aspect of the business. As a trainee, I will experience our business at every level from the bottom up."

Katie Buss

Current Trainee | Inside Sales | Texas

"The program allows talented young people the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of our field in a fraction of the time that it should. CED was willing to invest money in my success. Now I get to pay CED back by being successful for them."

"I get paid to make friends — relationships are the key to success. It’s fun and rewarding on multiple levels."

Errol Respicio

Location Manager | Former Trainee | California

"The program gave me the chance to work in a few different cities, to travel and most importantly to build a solid foundation for my future. I had the opportunity to meet and work with so many great people throughout the program, as well as to acquire the tools I need to be successful as a manager today.

At 24, I’m running my own business. That part is still pretty cool to me."

Nate Bucklew

Location Manager | Former Trainee | Kentucky

"The training program exposes you to so many new things and opportunities. You will have the chance to travel, to meet new people, and most importantly, to learn how to run a successful business. The program provides all the tools and resources you’ll need to reach your goals."

Nelson Micek

Location Manager | Former Trainee | Washington

"CED invests a great deal into its Management Training Program, and it can provide incredible opportunities for the right individual. I’m very grateful to have earned a position with Consolidated Electrical Distributors and look forward to my future with the company."